Garden share collective June 2014 - Goodbye May & the first day of winter.

Hello there, thank you for visiting and for reading my blog post for June as part of the Garden Share collective, hosted by Lizzie Moult over at Strayed from the Table.

Apologies for not posting this link last month, forgot, sorry
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The temperature in May cooled enough to light the first fire of the season.

What happened in May?

We picked the last of the tomatoes and pulled out all of the sad looking plants

  We decided to plant the onion seeds earlier this year, traditionally they say to plant on the shortest day and harvest on the longest, last year we lost the lot with non stop rain. So we're upping the odds on them getting a better start this time around. Planted 18th May.

 

Joe takes his time planting each individual seed at the recommended spacing distance, a tip from the square foot gardening book,  this way you don't have to thin out, replant or waste any seeds, makes more sense doesn't it? I remember planting whole packs of seeds then having to thin out and disposing of half of them, no sense there at all, especially with the cost of seeds!

 

Covering with a cloche until they have germinated and established themselves further aids their success, it also stops the ruddy cat using it as her personal bathroom!

 

Joe finally got around to planting the leeks, he used a broom handle to make a hole and dropped in the leek, that's all they need, Clyde doesn't look at all impressed.

Joe also planted more turnips, carrots, parsnips etc in one of the raised beds in the lowers garden and we bought some starter plants to speed things along a bit. I have no problem buying plants this way, I seem to have epic fails with seeds sometimes, it's less hassle and probably cheaper in the long run. I'm a lazy gardener if truth be told.

Perpetual spinach

Rainbow silverbeet/chard

Two varieties of kale, one curly and the other roma?

In the clear space between the rows and behind the recently planted pear tree 

we've planted broad beans

All the fruit trees have been planted, the two pear, two apples and the fig are in the upper veg garden, all of the others are in the garden. No point showing you photos, they would just look like bits of twig stuck in the ground. They will be more interesting come spring.

A big pile of horse poop, covered. From a free and never ending source.

 

Area outside the kitchen, a work in progress and redesign planned.

View from the bedroom window, we planted the lemon, lime and the bay near the herb garden

We intend to mirror the 'L' shaped garden on the right hand side, we'll remove the herbs  from the raised bed and put them in the ground when we've dug out the border. 

Lots to be done in this area, might have more to report next month.

Elsewhere in the garden...Photo's taken this weekend.

Something's been chomping on the silverbeet and spinach!

But it's hanging in there...

The leeks have grown since taking the photos at the beginning of the post.

The kale too has grown a wee bit, some of these have been chomped too!

New shoots poking their heads out of the ground.

We'll be able to start using some of these lettuce leaves soon

Look at the weeds already!

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The brassicas are doing well

The pepper/capsicum plants not so well, they got frosted.

Joe's moving them into what will become the greenhouse today.

What I've had to do to stop the cat's getting on these gardens.

 

Looking a bit sad, I planted more that that! Ruddy cats!

Turnips are doing alright though.

It's citrus time, and this satsuma? is heaving

 This branch is on the floor with the weight

Grapefruit

Three lemons! They won't be enough for my G&Ts!

The stock like to help prune, this area was once part of the garden, it's now a paddock

We have planted a new lemon outside the kitchen.

I think I will be making marmalade soon.

We've even had these flowering.....bizarre.

Joe put some garlic in here today

And as I do this post he is clearing this area and will plant more garlic

And that's me for this month, good riddance May, I didn't like you much.

Today is the first day of winter and this is how it looked earlier. 

See you next month